Aegis
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Transitions are hard, the changes that come with them are even harder. As the new year comes and the rights of robots are recognized throughout Metro City, changes are only inevitable. For Astro and Uran, these changes mean acceptance, facing depression, suppressed fears, and the meaning of family. [Sequel to Ambrosiac][AU][Updates Monthly]
1. Chapter 1

A year ago, folks talked about the Kokoro Theory in passing- a rumor that couldn't do anything to anyone. This year was different. This year everyone was talking about the Kokoro Theory and knew that it did effect someone somewhere.

This year was going to be the year of change.

Some people, like Uran, were not ready for change, so they became stubborn lumps under their bed covers and wanted things to return to the way it was before. What Uran had though, wasn't something that everyone else did- she had a brother, and he loved her no matter what. Even if that meant helping her fight a foe that she wasn't even aware about...

. . .

Astro was quite pleased at the first party Professor O'Shay had decided to throw for him and Uran. Almost everyone from school was there, which made Astro feel extremely excited and anxious to have all these familiar faces in a place they would normally never be seen in. It wasn't until Astro was sure everyone from school was in attendance that he realized Uran was no one is sight.

What seemed even more odd was that she had actually seemed excited when Professor O'Shay said that he would allow them to have a party. She was thrilled when he said that there would be no adults watching over them either. So, what changed between then and now?

A small wash of fear came over Astro as he started to quickly go back inside the house to check on Uran. He was noticed by one of his friends, Kennedy, who stopped him with curiosity.

"Where are you going Astro?" Kennedy asked, ready to stand out of the way again if Astro was going back to the house if a real emergency was going on.

"Uran hasn't come out yet." the android told his friend. "I'm going to check on her to make sure she's alright."

"Uran?" Kennedy questioned as if the thought had never occurred to him. "Uran hardly turns down the idea of dancing at parties she's invited to. You ever see her dance before? It's like she rehearses every night or something!"

Astro bit his lower lip. Kennedy wasn't given him much to feel hopeful about. Never mind the idea that he was now her brother and he still didn't know that much about her- the idea that this situation wasn't something Uran would typically do was making Astro worried.

"Go get Uran." Kennedy then told Astro, almost reading off of the worried android's emotions. "She'd really like to dance, I bet. And tell her all of us want to see her dance too!"

His fear pushed aside for a moment, Astro gave Kennedy a confirming nod. "Thanks." Astro told him friend gratefully. Kennedy smiled in return and let Astro go on ahead.

. . .

"Uran?" Astro quietly asked as he opened the door to her room.

"I'm not going." Uran told him from her bed. "I feel sick."

Sympathetic, Astro walked over to her bed to see her laying there. She had gotten dressed, much to her brother's relief and surprise, deciding to put on her bright pink tunic dress with white stockings.

"I don't think you want to stay here all night- you got dressed." Astro reasoned. "I'll be with you the entire time if you want me to. You know I will."

Uran didn't answer, instead she curled herself up into a little ball and frowned.

"Come on Uran, you look great." Astro coaxed as he gently pulled on her arm. "And all our friends from school are here."

"The last time I felt this sick, we ended up with the whole world demanding to see our innards- bet some of them wanted us in pieces." Uran spat, forcing her arm away from Astro with a surprising amount of attitude. "You might not bleed, but _I_ do, contrary to what some theorists believe."

"Uran…"

"Don't 'Uran…' me brother, I'm not going anywhere!"

Astro looked at his sister for a moment and knew that she was going to stand by her word.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he wondered as he started to walk out the door.

Uran let out an indignant little huff as he shut the door behind him. Being stubborn wasn't inherently bad- quite naturally it was a defense mechanism more than anything. The girl made another annoyed little huff as she walked over to her window to look out at the party below. It looked rather fun, truth be told, and almost everyone from school had been invited. The feeling or want to actually go down and join them was lost on Uran- she really just wanted to go back to bed and forget about everything, and having such a simple, almost nagging desire made her angry.

The door started to creak open a bit, and Uran whipped her head around to snap at however was going to come through. It was only Jump -who had been excluded from the party because someone was allergic to dog fur- and he made a beeline toward Uran to jump into her lap.

"Jump!" Uran declared, "You're lucky you weren't Astro coming back in to nag me again. I'm not going down to that party and no one is going to make me."

Jump looked up at Uran with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

"I don't want to go down, that's why! And I have no other reason than that!"

Jump gave Uran a little pout before nuzzling her.

"I didn't say it was a good reason..." she then said, giving the dog a rub behind the ear. "It's just the only one I can think of right now… But, Jump, so much has been going on and I feel like I've been forced onto a stage where folks can aim a gun at you if they don't like the performance. It's like… no matter what I do now, someone's not going to like it. Jump, I… I don't like being watched. I don't even know how to express it, it's like there's this big wall between what I mean to say and how I actually feel, and it's… it's..."

The dog looked up at Uran with his big, puppy-like eyes and licked the side of her face affectionately. The girl gave a small smile as she wiped off the dog's drool off her face.

"Thanks." she smiled. "I'll go, you won. You're still not coming down though- Brianna's allergic to dogs, remember?"

Jump barked in response, upset that he couldn't go down after cheering Uran up but knowing that it had to be done.

Maybe she'd sneak him some cupcakes instead.


	2. Chapter 2

"How'd it go with Uran?" Kennedy asked when he saw Astro again.

"Has she always been stubborn?" the android asked as he rubbed the back of his head with doubt. It took all it had in Kennedy to not snort in a loud, obnoxious laughter of agreement.

"I believe that training llamas to dance is easier than getting Uran to agree." the boy assured, giving Astro a hearty slap on the back. "Bet a good buck or two she'd spit at you first."

The android flashed the human boy a concerned look. "She'd do that?" he asked. Kennedy laughed again even though Astro wished he wouldn't.

"Depends on what mood I'm in." someone said from behind them, giving both Kennedy and Astro a good jump out of their skin.

"H-hey Uran!" Kennedy clumsily greeted as his face started to flush an extremely dark red. Uran's only reply was a sly raise of her eyebrow.

"Y-you look great!" Kennedy added. "I'm glad you decided to come down. After all, this party is just for you and Astro- it would have been a shame if you couldn't come down for just a small visit."

"Right." Uran smiled as she folded her arms. "Would you like to place your foot further in your mouth, or are you done now?"

Kennedy gave another nervous chuckle while refusing to look Uran in the eye.

. . .

Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Science, Professor O'Shay worked with an elite group of other scientists as they sorted out the data of a new robot. Two robots, actually. If all went well, one was going to be designated as a male and the other was to be female. Their physical appearance wasn't being constructed by the Ministry, however, that honor was given to a partner company located in Europe.

The passing of the robotic freedom ordinance had made robots free to the public outside of Metro City. Now everyone clamored to create their own robots, no matter how intelligent, or advanced, or how human like they were. The robots created in Metro City were still special to the land they came from, but the availability of plans could easily be public domain now- or they could still be private, if the designer sends in the proper forms, of course.

The plans that Professor O'Shay was using were unique -not to be shared with anyone- and it belonged solely to the Ministry of Science of Metro City, any copies were to be considered stolen if used by anyone else.

Admittedly, allowing Astro and Uran to have a party without adult supervision was just a tactic to distract them from what he was really planning. He'd have to fly them out of the country to finish the rest of his plans. That would take almost a month, maybe a month and a half if Metro City was expecting that blizzard any time soon. It didn't seem likely that it would snow any time soon, considering how warm this season had been (some days were as warm as 11 degrees Celsius!) but when the cold front did come it, O'Shay knew enough in his time that it was going to be ugly.

Professor O'Shay shook his head- this wasn't time to be thinking about the weather, he needed to focus on the project at hand.

On the back of his mind, the professor couldn't help but wonder if mental diseases could transfer into the personality data of robots…

. . .

Uran wasn't sure whether she wanted to dance or not. Usually, when she really wanted to dance to a good song, her body would twitch in anticipation and potential. Right now though… that feeling just wasn't there. When she thought about it, all she wanted to do was go back to bed. She had to stay, everyone she knew was at this party because they liked her and Astro alike, the least she could do was pretend to have fun.

"Hey, you're Uran, right?" a voice said from next to her. Uran jumped from her secluded thoughts to look up at who had spoken to her. She looked up to see a boy that she did not recognize, and looked to be nearly three years older than she was. As he sat down next to her, his olive green eyes trained themselves to look over her- as if recognizing her profile would confirm her identity. Likewise, Uran looked him over, as if recognizing him would give a hint to his identity. He was handsome, no doubt, even if he looked a bit defiant. Uran looked him over suspiciously, her eyes tracked him down from his fire red hair -plaited, and pulled back into a loose and low ponytail behind him- to his black Converse boots.

"Who are you?" Uran then decided to say, realizing that the two had created a silence while judging each other. "I've never seen you around school before."

"My father's company relocated over the winter holiday." the boy told her with a roll of his shoulder. "I'm actually going to attend the high school, but my father got to meet Professor O'Shay, and the old man thought that I might like coming. Meh, I don't think I had much of a say in whether I wanted to come or not."

Uran gave the boy an odd look as he reclined in his spot to think.

"I'm Daichi, by the way." the boy then decided to add. "And you're Uran, right? That cyborg kid that folks in the robotic field has been going on about since they found out you had a connection to Doctor Tenma."

Uran flinched as the memory of an announcement gone wrong brought to attention several things. Her being not completely human was one of them. Daichi caught on to this quickly, and knew to change the subject.

"Can I get you a drink or something?" he asked, preparing to stand up. "You look like you haven't had much to eat or drink recently."

Uran gave an indifferent little shrug. "I guess you could bring me a water bottle or something." she agreed. "Did you see them earlier? They're in the cooler by the-"

"I saw them." Daichi told her. "I'll be back soon."

"Thanks." Uran dimly told him as he went toward the snack table.

Uran closed her eyes and tried to think a bit to herself. Whatever had happened, after talking with Daichi she didn't feel as tired as before. He seemed pretty nice, and was careful to not intentionally say something that could have made her feel worse. Who knows? Maybe he'd catch a hint and ask her to dance or something- but that was wish fulfillment.

At least she had someone different to talk to instead of just Astro or someone from school; someone that didn't know her quite well enough to know too much, giving them something could have ended up making her bitter or upset. It was too early to tell, but Uran had a good feeling that she could trust him.


	3. Chapter 3

Although she wanted some water, Daichi poured some fruit punch into a plastic cup for Uran instead as his phone started to ring. Using one hand to get the phone out of his pocket, he checked to caller ID before answering.

"Good afternoon Doctor Minee, how are you?" Daichi answered rather coldly into the receiver.

"Do you still have the bug?" a very loud voice on the other end hollered, causing Daichi to flinch before turning the volume down on the phone a bit to compensate.

"You'll have to refresh my memory sir, which bug do you mean? I think I'm coming down with a viral bug- mostly draining mucus, really, it just sits at the back of my throat and gathers enough bacteria to..."

"I MEAN THE BUG YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GIVE TO ASTRO!"

Daichi flinched again from Minee's dying cat screeching before taking the time to respond. "Ah yes, that bug. I think I might have it. But, just to remind me again, why am I trying to slip a nanite into a harmless android's system again?"

On the other end, Minee gave an annoyed growl that made Daichi silently snicker. Although he was less than amused with the boy, Minee still answered- grumbling all the way, "The potential in that robot is the greatest the world could have ever seen." Minee told Daichi. "I want to know what makes him that way. However, since his blueprints are one of the few still placed under a high security allowance, I've found a way to discover that blueprint without having to bypass several security codes and getting caught in the act."

"And you're using me to do this because my father rejected your miniaturization machine? How devious."

Minee grunted, but said nothing further. Daichi was smart, he knew he was being manipulated. If anything, the discussion should have been on why the boy was complying with the loon to begin with.

"And what if I give the nanite the Astro's sister Uran?" Daichi then asked, looking at the fruit punch as if it had given him an idea. "They say she's roughly twenty-five percent robot herself, and all that robotics reveals the entirety of the Kokoro Theory. She's the reason Astro exists; could the nanite extract the same information from her as it could her brother?"

"No." Minee told him shortly. "There is nothing is Uran worth anything. She's useless."

"Interesting..." Daichi thoughtfully spoke out loud. "Very interesting..."

"Deliver the nanite." Minee then reminded Daichi. "Call me back when it's in so we can move from there." and with the that the scientist hung up his end of the line. With a shrug, Daichi tucked his phone back into his pocket and went back to Uran. He gave Uran the drink without much thought or wanting an ounce of gratitude, but she gave it to him any way with a weak smile.

"Thanks." she mumbled before started to sip the drink. Daichi waved his hand as if it wasn't a big deal before his eyes drifted over to Astro, who in turn looked at him with an unreadable glance. An invisible wave length was sent between them that summoned Astro to get closer.

"Are you alright Uran?" the android instinctively asked his sister as he found a place to sit next to her. Hilariously enough, where he sat was between Uran and Daichi. Could it have been for protection... or the start of an unnerving form of jealousy?

"I'm fine." the girl insisted before taking a sip of the punch. "Astro this is Daichi, he's going to come to our school soon and his dad knows Dr O'Shay."

"It's nice to meet you Daichi." Astro greeted as he turned to the human.

"Same."

For several moments, the boys stared at each other as Uran simply sipped away at her drink, almost choosing to ignore them.

"I've been protecting Uran since it was made official that she's not human." Astro said, almost sounding like he was giving in to peer pressure and wasn't sure of what he was saying. "It's always been a rumor before, but when the truth came out everyone wanted a piece of her or started to ask her questions that made her feel uncomfortable. I stopped a lot of people from making Uran feel bad. Because of people like that, she's not comfortable around crowds anymore… or strangers."

Daichi raised an eyebrow at Astro while Uran gave the android a confused look. Confidently, Daichi offered a smile before letting out a small chuckle. "I wondered how Uran would react to all that attention, especially considering that much of it had been defused behind her back by several secret workers hired by her mother. That reminds me, Uran, I'm glad someone was with you with Ambassador Zoran passed away. I lost my mother at a young age, and although I don't remember much of it, I didn't have much support from someone in the family. My father was busy with business, you see, and everyone else seemed to think that I was too young to understand what had happened."

The teenager let out a slightly sullen laughter, earning an equal look from Uran and Astro that expressed some degree of sympathy and subtle interest.

"It's nice to know that the weak always has someone to help them, isn't it?" Daichi asked, talking in a tone that almost made it seem he was talking to himself. The only response he got was more stares from the siblings. Daichi then turned to look at them again and his gaze fell on Uran's now empty cup.

"Would you like some more punch?" he asked her quite calmly. "I can fill it back up again for you."

Uran looked at her cup as if she were suddenly aware of it before giving him a nod and handing him the cup. Daichi took the cup and made his way back over to the drink table.

Generously filling the cup almost to the tip this time, Daichi took a quick look around before he placed the cup on the table. He then checked underneath of his finger nail for the nanite Minee had given him- it was still there, now active because it had sensed Astro in close proximity. Carefully, Daichi scrapped the nanite from underneath his fingernail and into Uran's drink. There wasn't a way in the world that Daichi was going to give Astro that nanite, and even Minee was sure that it couldn't harm the girl so this was arguably the best way to go about it. Right?

Truthfully, there wasn't much time to think this out properly, but Daichi knew that whatever happened to Uran wouldn't be as strong as what it could be to Astro. The nanite was supposed to abstract as much information as it could from Astro's electronic brain then dispose of the contents as it forced it to shut down. Uran didn't have an electronic brain.

Daichi took one last look at the drink to make sure the nanite had landed into the blood red liquid before picking it back up again to take to Uran.

 _Uran… please, please,_ please _forgive me..._


	4. Chapter 4

"Astro… go to bed..."

"I'll go to bed, when you go to sleep."

"Remember when we talked about boundaries and how cutting those boundaries made things creepy after awhile?"

"Yeah?"

"If you don't leave soon, I'm going to get nightmares."

"Sorry..." was what he said, what he meant was 'something is wrong with you and I want to help but I don't know how'. Uran was tired, but she didn't want to go to sleep with him staring at her either. The party had completely wiped her out- all she wanted to do was sleep now with the likely possibility that she would never wake up.

Downstairs the front door opened then closed, alerting the two that Professor O'Shay had finally come back home. Astro twitched for a moment, other programming hardwired to make him greet the professor but was resisted with the will to stay with Uran.

"Go greet him." Uran requested, her words slurring by a margin from her own exhaustion. "If you resist too much of your programing, you'll hurt something."

Astro nodded before taking a soft hold of Uran's hand to kiss it. "I'll be back." he promised as he slowly started to walk out of the room. The girl only nodded as her eyes finally felt heavy enough to close in peace. Offering a gentle smile, Astro closed the door behind him and darted down the stairs to greet Professor O'Shay.

"Good evening professor." the little android greeted cheerfully. "Did you have a successful day at the Ministry today?"

Almost absentmindedly, O'Shay nodded as he handed Astro his coat and hat. "Progress was made, but not as much as I would like." the professor told the android in a light tone. "How was your party by the way?"

"I believe it was rather grand for everyone." Astro smiled. "Many people thanked me for inviting them, and some others wanted to know when we'd have another party."

"That's sounds pretty exciting."

"But Uran… she's the only one hasn't told me how she felt about the party." Astro was silent for a moment before looking up at Professor O'Shay. "What happens to humans when their brains do not function the way they should? Because I think… no, I _believe_ that there is something wrong with Uran's brain, but I can't figure out what. Can such an illness exist in humans?"

Professor O'Shay gave Astro an inquiring look as he took a seat on the armchair in the living room. Astro waited patiently as the professor prepared his answer, almost acting as if he was going to instruct a small child, not an advanced android.

"There are many diseases that could effect the human mind Astro." the professor finally said. "Alzheimer's disease, for example, takes place in typically older human brains that breaks down certain connections that talk to several important neurons that keeps the brain functioning. The side effects of this incurable disease can become moments of forgetfulness or changes in one's personality."

"But..." Astro started to say as his cognitive circuit started to process the information, "What about someone's Uran age? Uran a… a 14 year old that has never forgotten a thing; what kind of disease could make her lose a part of her personality and drive to do… well, anything?"

"Are you implying that you believe that Uran has depression?" Professor O'Shay questioned with a small raise of his eyebrow.

Depression? The word lulled around in Astro's mind for a moment as he thought about it. Yes, that sounded about right he supposed. The little android looked up at O'Shay and nodded, to which, almost immediately after, the professor started to laugh.

"I'm glad that you care about her Astro," O'Shay laughed, "But Uran is a teenager with very conflicting hormones running about her like chickens without their heads. I doubt very seriously that Uran has depression, and psychiatrist could tell us that."

Astro bit his lower lip in a small act of defiance and disagreement. There was no way that Professor O'Shay felt that way about the idea of Uran having depression- was it not hereditary if it was known her mother had some kind of depression-like symptoms before she finally died from overdose? Was there any doubt that Uran had already had some kind of history with depression-like episodes before her mother's passing, if not because of her mother's passing? No wonder suicide was the second biggest killer among Uran's age group; no one believed them when they sought help.

"I think I'm going to make sure Uran is asleep." Astro then decided out loud. "Good night professor."

"Good night Astro." O'Shay agreed with a nod.

Carefully, Astro made it back up to Uran's room and back to her bedside to find her fast asleep.

"Don't worry Uran," Astro whispered to her as he pulled some of her covers closer to her chin, "I'll give you back the open sky, and the sea. I'll… I'll open up the whole world for you if I need to because I made a promise. And I never, ever want to break one of my promises- especially not to you."

The little android then inched closer to his sister.

"No one is going to hurt you." he promised. "Nothing will ever happen to you under my watch, promise."

. . .

The next morning, Astro woke to the first snowflakes of the season. It was the first snowfall he had ever seen before so he looked out his window with wonder and excitement. After staring out the window for a rather long time, Astro remembered Uran and rushed to her room to tell her the news.

"Uran, it's snowing!" Astro elated as he shook her. "It's really coming down in those little flakes Professor O'Shay feared too! Come on Uran, wake up!"

But Uran didn't move. In fact, she hadn't even moved at all- if it wasn't for her chest slowly and steadily moving, he almost would have thought for a minute that she was…

"Uran, Uran wake up." Astro then said as he started to shake her harder in an attempt to get any other response out of her. "Uran… Uran please!"

She still didn't move, so Astro quickly tried to make his legs move to Professor O'Shay's room. His body was almost working autonomously as it pulled the still half asleep professor out of bed as Astro's voice box kept screaming the same words over and over again; "Professor O'Shay you need to come help Uran! Uran isn't waking up Professor! Professor O'Shay something is wrong with Uran, please come help!"

"Astro…?" Professor O'Shay slurred as the android succeeded in making the older man sit up in his bed. "What is wrong with you?"

"It's not me Professor, it's Uran!" Astro gasped frantically. "She's not responding!"

Professor O'Shay looked at Astro as he got up out of his bed. "What do you mean by 'not responding' Astro?" he asked as the two paced back to Uran's room. "Is she breathing?"

"Yes, but..." Astro started to say, but was cut off when they entered Uran's room so Professor O'Shay could get a better look at Uran. Astro watched as the professor did almost exactly the same he had done not that long before, albeit rougher.

"Astro call the hospital." Professor O'Shay then commanded in a still tone. "Tell them to get us an ambulance as soon as they can."

"Yessir." Astro agreed without being told twice. As he started to get to the phone, the professor stopped him with one last request;

"And call the Ministry of Science too Astro, tell them to ready the operating room for malfunctioning robots."


	5. Chapter 5

Astro quickly found that he hated the sounds of the hospital.

He found that he hated it even more when something was said about Uran's condition. From what he could hear though, it sounded as if nothing was wrong with her. He also overheard some doctors saying how they wished some man named Kuro'o Hazama was still alive, something about him being the closest thing to Jesus for Uran…. or something. His price for service got rather high apparently- the 'high' amount of money one doctor jokingly suggested to treat Uran seemed to be in Professor O'Shay's budget. Perhaps that had been the joke…

Six incredibly long hours passed before news came around to Astro that Uran was going to be transferred to the Ministry of Science.

"She's absolutely fine biologically." a nurse informed him. "Since a part of her inner workings are robotic, she's going to be transferred to the Ministry of Science so her inorganic parts can be examined. If they find nothing there… then we would have no other hope for Uran."

"I'll take her to the Ministry." Astro instantly offered. "It'll be quicker than calling an ambulance; I know exactly what room Professor O'Shay wants to examine her in."

The nurse raised an eyebrow and turned to the doctor.

"Are we even allowed to do that?" she questioned.

"If he goes too fast she might be in a worse state." the doctor thoughtfully said. "But even at his slowest speed, he could still get there faster than the ambulance ever could. I say he should go for it- what else could it do to the comatose kid?"

"Thank you." Astro beamed, before rushing to Uran's hospital room. The nurse that had been attending to her just received the message of Astro coming and was in the process of taking the cables that tracked Uran's heartbeat out when he came in. The little android waited patiently until the nurse said that it was alright before he inched closer to Uran to pick her up. When Astro started to head toward the opened window, the nurse stopped him.

"Aren't you going to go out the door?" he questioned.

"This way's easier." Astro insisted. "Thank you though."

Not looking back at the confused (and slightly amused) nurse, Astro took off with Uran safely in his arms.

. . .

"Well I hope you're happy." Doctor Minee sneered at Daichi. "The bug meant to destroy Astro is now in his sister Uran."

Daichi didn't say anything, and looked at the doctor as if nothing were wrong. He knew Minee would find out about the bug eventually due to a tracking device, so this revelation did not surprise him.

"Now, thanks to you, the bug is now destroying Uran."

The look Daichi gave Doctor Minee must have been horribly surprised because the mad doc looked back at the teen with snide smile.

"It would appear that Uran's robotic skeleton meshed perfectly into her natural muscles- my bug can travel along her electrical pulses for as long as it wants. In fact, it even found a pathway right up to her brain."

"The bug can't hurt her, not her biological parts at least." argued Daichi, "You said so yourself."

"That I did, but that was before we found out that she was a lot more mechanical than on first inspection." Minee snickered. "The bug has already driven her to comatose, might only be a matter of time before it does something far worse..."

"You're endangering a human life!"

"If she were so human then my bug _wouldn't_ be able to hurt her." Doctor Minee claimed with a shrug of his shoulder. "And if her life costs so much, then someone soon will be sending a distress signal to the greatest scientists to get my bug out. Don't you think?"

"What makes you think that Professor O'Shay couldn't figure out a way to get the bug out?" Daichi questioned irritably.

Doctor Minee's only answer was with an uncomfortable chuckle and a wide smirk. Knowing what kind of position he put Uran in, and how Minee was going to use that to get to Astro, Daichi suddenly felt very, very sick.

. . .

Astro could easily read the active X-ray machine as it scanned over Uran's body. This machine was much more powerful than the X-ray at the hospital, as seeing it was developed for small defects in robots.

"Do you see anything?" the robot asked Professor O'Shay after not seeing anything out of the ordinary himself.

"Not yet." the professor said, his voice in a still calm as he concentrated. "Do you have any idea how Uran got to be this way?"

Astro shook his head. "She was fine yesterday at the party. She only seemed really tired until after… which seemed a bit odd because she didn't do much dancing. Uran didn't seem at all that tired until after we met Daichi..." Then something clicked in Astro's electronic brain. Daichi did something, what he wasn't sure, but it was the reason why she was out cold and unresponsive.

"There!" Professor O'Shay suddenly declared, rudely snapping Astro out of his thoughts. Astro turned his attention to the monitor as the professor had it zoom in a small, quickly moving object. Typing in some commands, he then turned his attention to one of the technicians. "Can you track the bug's route to find a point of entry?"

"I can try." the technician nodded as he started to type feverishly at his station. It wasn't much longer until he came to his conclusion, "The point of entry was the mouth sir." he reported.

"Daichi..." Astro muttered darkly, earning Professor O'Shay to look over at the android questionably.

"What was that Astro?" he asked.

"Nothing Professor." Astro insisted with a shake of his head. "It's not important. How are we going to get that bug out of Uran?"

"I'm not sure." the professor admitted. "No one has created a machine small enough to go and destroy something inside the human body. Even if they had, it might not be compatible with Uran's unique body type- between the electricity coming off of her human heart and the robotic skeleton, there might be enough force to destroy the new object almost instantly."

"But why is this bug still in her?" the android questioned in anger. "And why is it hurting her?"

"Whoever created it must have developed it for larger electrical pulses that mimic human pulses with the added boost for inorganic beings. With the results we're collecting from the bug, it could have had enough power to destroy _you_ from the inside."

"So why is it hurting Uran?" Astro harshly implored.

The only answer the professor had was a shrug and a dismal shake of his head.

"We'll need to call a meeting with the greatest minds in the robotic and biological fields." he then finally said. "Surely someone will know how to get that bug out of Uran."


End file.
